


Stormsnow

by Angelscythe



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Panic Attacks, Rats, Trans Felix Hugo Fraldarius, mention of car accidents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:54:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28315629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelscythe/pseuds/Angelscythe
Summary: For Christmas, Felix went to the petshop so he could adopt two new babies for his and Sylvain's little family. But when he was about to leave the mall, something happened. Something reminded him he would never be stonger than Glenn. Gladly, his partner and love his life will be there for him. Like always.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23
Collections: Sylvix Gift Exchange 2020





	Stormsnow

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the sweet [ @Seastorm ](https://twitter.com/Seastorm_aik) for the corrections!!  
> This is a sweet fanfiction I wrote for the Sylvix exchange and I hope it will please you!!! I always make Xmas rhyme with Angst so... sorry with that, but I brought fluff too!!!
> 
> Have a merry merry Xmas!!!!!!  
> (and you know: stay safe, be cautious, wear a mask, wash your hands, hydrate yourself and remember that you matter so much and it's okay to take break!!)

At this time of the year, sadly, the pet shop was filled with people lurking for the cutest dog or for something tinier; like a rabbit, perhaps? Though those were the prey of the aficionados rather around Easter.

Felix hated that.

He hated to have to squeeze between the crowd to move forward.

To be honest, he wouldn’t be against throwing his elbow in the ribs of anyone, but he didn’t like to  _ have  _ to do it or he would soon lack of breath or intimacy. For all the positives about this period of the year, like the way Sylvain decorated the house and his proud face when he was done, there were so many disagreeable ones…

Forcing his way through, Felix arrived at one of the areas he wanted to be, which gladly, was deserted. A few years ago, the first year he accompanied his brother to choose an animal to take home for Christmas, this section was crowded like never before. Everybody wanted a ‘Ratatouille’ and he still could remember mumbling ‘He’s called Remi’ every damn time. Glenn smiled each time. And while he might have chosen his first pet for the same reasons as everybody else, the love story never stopped…

So, today, he approached the glassed cages of the rats like he had done often before. He couldn’t help a light smile on his lips when he saw them in a little ball of rats. Brown, black, white, grey, and even patterns of different colors made the strangest ball of fur.

As he looked at the rats, that Mariah Carrey song Sylvain sang too much echoing in the background, Felix noticed one of them approaching him. eyes half-closed, pretty slow to move, the little beast just woke up and walked toward Felix. Felix’s eyes couldn’t help shine and, to be honest, he was glad to make eye-contact with the little creature that approached him.

Though, Felix realized that the little creature was walking not toward  _ him  _ but the bracelet made of turquoise, rose quartz and opaline. Light blue, pink, white, pink and light blue again.

Felix smiled. “You like that too, huh?”

He approached his hand and, clearly, the rat followed the gems. Or perhaps they just wanted to nibble the rubber band for fun, who knew?

Certainly not Felix who knew very well his four brave rats but had long months, or even years of friendship with them before reaching such affection, or confidence, to him. He couldn’t do the same with any rat and certainly not one he had just met at this exact moment. But this little grey rat, the belly whiter, was so adorable. They were the one! He just needed to find them a companion for the quarantine they would have to undergo for a few days. Felix crouched, the grey rat still staring at him, and he looked at the different rats. When he was just a child, he would just take the prettiest ones, but now he was older and able to detect if a rat would be better with him or not.

“Do you have a friend so I can adopt you both?”

The greyish rat wouldn’t reply, obviously, but that didn’t prevent Felix’s attention from being caught by two eyes that seemed to have been staring at him since he was there. A tiny black rat. So tiny and so discrete Felix thought he was a part of the rat-ball but, the truth was that… the little black rat managed to get out of it and now stood there and judged Felix. Which Felix respected grandly.

“Wait for me there, I’m coming back,” Felix said.

He stepped away from the glass and went after a member of the staff, which was certainly one of the hardest things to do at this time of the year. Everybody had a question to ask, an opinion to receive, or some useless reclamations.

“Ma’am, please?” Felix forced himself to call as he saw a woman in the bird area.

This place wasn’t too crowded, not a fancy enough pet probably, and he felt like the employee had chosen to work here especially for that. He had a lot of instant compassion for her.

When she fully turned toward him, her head low, he could see her name on the badge.

Marianne.

“Excuse me. I’d like to adopt two rats, please,” he said.

“Two rats?” she repeated.

Not that rats weren’t adopted enough but it was really that uncommon around Christmas. Which made Felix glad, and, it seemed, the lady as well, because no one would get bored of the precious little creatures and throw them away like Easter bunnies.

“Yes, please.”

“Sure. Go there and…” She looked at the crowd on the other side of the shop, through the rays and alleys. “And I’ll come back with a…”

“You can come with me. I took a transport cage.”

Felix showed said transport cage he was holding with one hand behind his back when he was walking through the alleys. Thought it would have been a good way to force the crowd to move away from him.

“Perfect!” she said. “Let’s go then. Do you…” she moved through the rays to join the rat island. “… have anything for the rats?”

“I’ll take food and salmon paste for them,” Felix replied.

Better have twenty pounds of food in the corner of the flat, to the despair of Sylvain, than nothing. Although, knowing Sylvain, Felix wouldn’t be surprised if his husband had decided to decorate the bags of food…

With Marianne, Felix arrived in front of the cages and he pointed out the little rats that caught his heart. The grey one that was attracted by his precious bracelet and the tiny black ones he already wanted to smooch. …Away from any camera Sylvain could turn toward him!

  
  


Thirty painful minutes later, Felix was finally walking outside of the pet shop. The fresh air was very welcome after the unbearable heat of the shop and he was more than never glad to have saved two precious little creatures.

“You two are so cute. I need to find you a pretty name before Sylvain would find you the dumbest name. What about… Hm… Achilles and Pa…?”

Felix stopped talking because he felt something fell on his nose as he looked down. Horror crossed his eyes and he looked up to see what one hour and a half passed in Hell had hid from him.

It was snowing.

The parking was covered with snow and a disgusting grey mud that used to be called snow…

“Shit…”

His hand shook and, despite being strong, the bag of two kilos of food slipped from his arm, crashing on his feet. He let out a curse but was already ruffling his pockets to find his phone.

Where did he put it?!

Where the hell was his phone?!

As soon as he found it, he forced it out his pocket, the fingers of his other hand firmly gripped around the precious rats’ cage, and he pressed the dial for the emergency number.

Three seconds later, he heard the cheerful voice of his husband. But, sadly, it wasn’t soothing at all…

“Hi! You found the cutest rats ever I hope?! How will you call them? How will  _ we  _ call them. I thought about Bubblegum and…”

“IT’S SNOWING SYLVAIN!”

Felix felt gazes turning towards him but he hadn’t the strength to hate on all of them. He trembled, and it wasn’t because of the coldness.

“It… Fuck. I’ll come to get you. Go inside to stay warm, okay?”

Felix stared at the pet shop filled with people, that living hell. He wanted to protest and propose another shop, there were so many around the parking lot, but the truth? His heart beat so hard, his breath was so quick and irregular, and his legs were shaking so much that he wasn’t even sure he could stand outside any longer or cross the lot to get to the fast food. He would have loved a coffee to warm his guts and cool his mind but it seemed like an unreachable mirage.

“Felix?!”

“Yes!” Felix replied, too aggressively.

“I’m already outside. I’ll keep you on the phone if you want to.”

Felix’s fingers closed around the phone. “I love you,” he whispered.

He begged the Goddess for no one to have heard his weakness except the one he would always be weak for.

“I love you too, Fe’. I’m here. I should be there in twenty minutes.”

Twenty minutes.

It seemed an eternity.

Felix’s organs were mad and refused to listen to their maestro’s commands. Not surprising…

Eight years ago, a bit after the day he received his first rat, that he really called Remy, Glenn was caught in a car crash. On a snowy day. Each time it snowed, Felix could only replay the day. How his father told it to him, how Glenn was laying there with tubes everywhere, and refused to wake up despite Felix’s pleas. Getting his driver license in the first place had been a real ordeal for him. Glenn was better than him in everything. Yet Glenn, who was a really good driver, despite driving for only a couple of months back then, had been caught in a car accident.

How could he, the son that was less impressive and skilled than Glenn, do any better? He would have a car accident!

Thanks to Ingrid, Sylvain and the fact that Dimitri got his license first try, Felix managed to pass his license as well, two years ago. After three fails.

And the first day it snowed, he realized he was unable to drive. Sat behind the steering wheel, he saw the image loop in his mind. Once, he ended up crying and begging for his brother to come. Sylvain found him one hour later, when getting ready to leave to work and realizing his car had never left.

Since that day, Felix was transparent with his husband and swore he would always warn him.

What other choice did Felix have, anyway?

They would check the weather to be sure there wouldn’t have snow when Felix had to take his car but… things happened.

And Sylvain was certainly too taken in his decorating to see the inevitable arise…

Still, he would jump on public transport to make sure he would drive his husband and his new babies home and Felix would always be forever grateful for this…

  
  


“Felix?! FELIX?!”

Sylvain looked round. He was already ready to step toward the counter and make an announcement to find back the most amazing man ever and with the most beautiful, but annoying, description of Felix he could think of, however a hand on his wrist made him pause.

“Felix!”

Felix hated public displays of affection, but he couldn’t stop the worrying tornado landing kisses on his face.

“Sylvain…”

“Yes, sorry.”

Sylvain stepped backward half a foot and Felix was grateful for this. On the other hand, Sylvain hated himself for having cut the conversation when he arrived at the parking lot but it was better to sprint without keeping his husband on the other side of the phone.

And now they were together anyway.

“I’ll drive you back home ‘kay?”

Felix nodded. He felt so miserable and was sure people were seeing his weakness. They would see how much he was lesser than Glenn. Glenn would have taken the road. Glenn  _ had  _ taken the road.

But the images of Glenn, lying there.

Felix couldn’t help a hiccup as his heart sped up again. He struggled to breathe just thinking about it. And if, because of him, Sylvain drove on this road and… the images of Glenn’s lying there were suddenly replaced by Sylvain.

“Sylvain!!”

Sylvain was about to bend to grab the bag of food when a cage of rats appeared in his view. He grabbed it just before Felix stepped away, in great need of air, and almost collapsed. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t clear his mind and worse than that, he could feel his binder closing around his thorax like a boa, giving him the sensation that, if he breathed, his lungs would explode.

“Felix!”

Sylvain quickly passed the arm around him to assist him while stepping outside.

The fresh and cold air whipped Felix and threw him back into reality. But breathing was still hard. No matter the advice Mercedes gave him the first time he had a panic attack, no matter the advice Sylvain was giving him now. He could feel the tears rolling along his cheeks and the cold making them freeze immediately.

He wanted it to stop.

“Felix, we soon will be home, okay? I will driv…”

“DON’T!!”

“What?”

“Please don’t!” Felix begged. “I can’t… I can’t…” He couldn’t breathe yet he could talk and he hated this feeling… “I can’t lose you. Please…”

Sylvain stared at him, then laid a soft kiss on his forehead. “Okay, Fe’. I won’t drive as long as it snows, okay?”

“Please… If I lose you…”

“Not gonna happen,” Sylvain said. “You take your time to breathe and calm yourself and when you feel ready, we will take the bus back home, okay?” Sylvain asked with a tender tone.

Felix forced himself to nod. 

The images kept swirling in his mind. If he lost Sylvain… If what happened to Glenn happened to Sylvain…

His husband helped him to sit on the bicycle rail. It was so cold but better than nothing… Felix seemed to be able to gulp one or two normal breath amongst the frenetic ones.

“What will you call those sweethearts?” Sylvain asked, referring to their new pets.

He slid the cage onto Felix’s thighs.

“So… you don’t want to call them Bubblegum and whatever anymore?” Felix asked.

“I want to call them Bubblegum and Doctor Pepper! We could buy a monocle for Doctor Pepper and a little hat! He would be the smartest one of the rats! But I also want to hear your name ideas.”

“You know that my name would be better than yours no matter what?” Felix smirked.

“Better. Not more ridiculous!”

Sylvain smiled and stepped inside to gather the bag of food. Then he came back to his husband, still breathing harshly but his fingers in the cage to caress the fur of the rats and, perhaps, soothe himself.

“I thought about Achilles and Patroclus,” he said.

“Great names too.” Sylvain sat next to him. “What about Bubbletroclus and Doctor Peppachiles?!”

“That would be ridiculous!” Felix protested.

“That’s why it’s great!”

When Sylvain chuckled, Felix stared at him. He was so glad to hear that laugh… It was bringing him into reality. It was soothing him more than anything else could…

“Are you sure you won’t regret it?” Sylvain asked.

“Nah, it’s fine.”

“Sure?”

Sylvain and Felix walked toward the bus stop.

“Yeah. Bubblegum and Doctor Pepper are fine names. I’ll call the next one Achilles and Patroclus. But see it as your Christmas gift.” Felix smirked.

“Whaaat?! No Christmas present?! You’re so mean! I defy the snow and the cold to come save you and no Christmas present?! And I thought you loved me!”

Felix shrugged with a little smile. He looked at the cage’s grid. “Does it please you? Bubblegum and Doctor Pepper… Soon, you’ll meet your new siblings.”

“Tell them what they’re called!”

Felix closed his eyes. “Ares and Artemis…”

“And, and, and!!!”

Sylvain smiled more and more. Just for that, Felix was convinced he shouldn’t say it. But he also loved seeing that smile…

“Cherry Pie and Butterscotch.”

“I love those names,” Sylvain laughed. He watched as the bus parked in the stop in front of them. He ruffled in his pocket to get his wallet and the money for their two seats. “You feel good enough? You need help?”

Sylvain’s worries were soft. Felix felt guilty about worrying his husband but also relieved he could count on him.

“I’m tired,” he confessed under his breath. “But… I’m okay.”

“Okay. I’m right behind you.”

Sylvain smiled at his lover and let him enter first, holding the precious cage in his arms. Sylvain still carried the bag of food, and the salmon paste was in Felix’s pocket from the beginning.

Felix climbed the steps of the bus and stepped to the side, letting Sylvain take care of paying.

“I’ll pay you back later,” Felix promised.

“No need to.”

Sylvain smiled at the bus driver, gave him the money and gently nodded to him. Then, he stepped away and walked with Felix toward the large seat at the end of the bus. It would be easier and be less noisy.

It wasn’t very late but… Felix realized how tired he was. The overwhelming emotions, his heart beating like he just did a marathon, his lungs struggling for air. All of this, added to his insomnia, had tired him so much. He was… exhausted. And just in the secret of his brain, he hoped they would soon be home. He would show their nice home to Bubblegum and Doctor Pepper then he could crash on the couch until he had to pretend he will prepare tonight’s food. With a bit of luck, Sylvain would be a Knight on his not-so-white horse and do the food for him…

“You alright?” Sylvain asked.

“Yeah.”

Felix stared at the seats in the bus. It was more crowded than Felix would like. Two people would crowd the bus too much in his opinion but there, the amount of people… Well, it wasn’t that surprising since the holidays approached and everybody wanted to grab their presents and not everybody had a car.

So he had to undergo a crowded bus.

“Eh…” Felix said under his breath. “You will have to come back for the car tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Perhaps I’ll do some groceries then!” Sylvain smiled.

Felix growled.

He didn’t want to be a burden.

But the way Sylvain looked at him told him ‘you’re the most precious being of the whole Universe and I care for you so much’ and, honestly, Felix wanted to believe that luck because it was good for his soul.

Felix snuggled against Sylvain and felt his arm around him. One of his brain cells begged for no contact in public but the remaindering of his brain shut down that brain cell so it could have the attention and the affection he wanted.

It needed it.

Felix needed it.

And he was so tired… Laying on Sylvain was always good. It was like a little cocoon of love. His arm around him, so protective… Not that he needed it because he would defeat anyone who might hurt Sylvain in a heartbeat, but it was also good to feel protected sometimes.

“Fe’?”

“Hmmm?” he replied.

The movement of the bus was soothing.

Sylvain smiled and laid a discrete kiss on his the pale temple. “Nothing,” he whispered.

“’kay…” Felix growled. “You’ll tell me when we’re home.”

“Yeah.”

Sylvain smiled a bit more and took his phone in one hand to send a SMS. As he did, he glanced at Felix who’s eyes closed more and more. The rats moved in the cage and Felix’s hands closed around it in an unconscious need to protect those precious little babies. Sylvain said nothing, just enjoying this feeling. This view.

Usually, Felix would fall asleep before him, and wake up before him. So, while Felix could see the wreck Sylvain he certainly was when he couldn’t monitor every bit of himself to be the prettiest around, he never had this chance to see the tension vanish from Felix’s tiny body. Sylvain allowed himself to push away a black strand from the softening face and he smiled when his husband snuggled even more against him in the bliss of semi-consciousnessa half-sleep.

  
  


The bus stopped, like it did so many times before. But this time, it was next to Sylvain and Felix’s flat.

Used to the bus stopping here and there, Felix didn’t wake up, still snuggled in the strong arm of his husband.

Sylvain could easily lift his Felix and the cage of rats, or the bag of food and the cage of rats. But, no matter how strong and skilled he was, Sylvain couldn’t carry the bag, the tiny husband, and the cage of rats without risking for any of them. And while Felix would prefer to be harmed than see the precious rats suffer in any way, Sylvain would never hurt Felix on purpose…

Someone climbed on the bus.

“If I give you two dollars, can you wait a little?”

The driver stared at them. And Sylvain stared at Felix as well. And he saw the driver smiling. The man was already five minutes late. So five minutes, ten minutes… at the end of the day, he would be even later anyway.

Then someone walked to the end of the bus.

“Look at that!” they let out.

And then a phone appeared and the flash immortalized the moment.

“Hey, a new pic for my blackmailing!!”

“We both know it’s a pic for your personal usage!” Sylvain smirked when he saw the shocked expression of the other. “Now, help me! Take that bag of food and the rats, I’ll carry your little brother.”

“What if I take my baby brother and you get the rats? Not that I can see a huge difference!” Glenn smiled.

“That the bag and the rats, pleaaaase?”

“Okay, if only for you! But know that I won’t forget this tasty moment! But between me and you…” Glenn winked and leaned to take the bag of rat food and also the precious babies, “he is absolutely adorable.”

“Don’t worry, Glenn, that secret will die with me.”

The truth was that… when Glenn got that car accident, he had been severely wounded, still holding scars today, and fell into a coma for a couple of weeks. As soon as he was fully able to dominate his movement, Glenn slid again behind a wheel and drove. But Felix was still deeply moved by the images. This was, actually, the only thing Glenn would never pester his brother about.

Sylvain shifted Felix so he could take him in his arms and he got up carefully, carrying the most precious baby and present he could never carry. He hugged his husband and walked behind Glenn to enter their flat and allow Felix to sleep even more comfortably.


End file.
